


We'll Talk About it Over Drinks Later

by stephanericher



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-28
Updated: 2015-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-11 16:27:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4443416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephanericher/pseuds/stephanericher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>for a prompt on tumblr. Midorima hasn't been so easy to get hold of lately.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We'll Talk About it Over Drinks Later

Midorima hasn’t answered Takao’s calls or e-mails or texts all weekend. Normally that wouldn’t be quite a cause for concern, but he’ll usually leave some indication, like a return call when he knows Takao will probably be busy himself and he has time to compose an angry voice message that Takao always listens to for the sheer hilarity of how self-important Midorima gets sometimes (especially about his work), or a specific message for the secretary at the hospital to give him, about not clogging up his busy schedule and asking for him when it’s not an emergency and no one is injured or sick. And, okay, Takao had half-expected no concrete answer from Midorima, especially given how crazy his work schedule has been lately and how they’ve been putting off dinners and brunches and drinks for weeks now and they’ve all piled up and how he always makes a point of it (and pretends not to) to cash in on every one he’s had to miss due to work or family or something else because despite his attitude and his demanding job, he values his and Takao’s friendship every bit as much as Takao does—if Midorima was any bit at all free, he probably would have answered on the first ring or made some concrete plans earlier. But when he calls the secretary, he’s told that Midorima is not only unavailable but that he’s taken the weekend off and hasn’t been in at all since Friday evening.

If he was taking a vacation, he probably would have told Takao—granted, they don’t tell each other everything or even close to everything, but they always know the important stuff, like when they’re planning on going out of town (since they have each other’s spare apartment keys and Midorima likes to have his plants watered every day). And though Takao doesn’t doubt Midorima needs his sleep (and certainly wouldn’t blame him for taking the weekend off for a 48-hour coma) catching up over the weekend isn’t his style. And there’s no reason for him to be avoiding Takao, so why hasn’t he called or e-mailed? If he’s awake and in town, other than the unlikely event that both his phone and his computer are incapacitated (and he hasn’t thought to send out a generic e-mail alerting everyone to that fact) what could be the issue? Even if Takao were annoying him, he’d send a short text back to tell him to stop being annoying (with a nanodayo or something on the end, or at least that’s how Takao would hear it in Midorima’s voice in his head when he’d read it) but even that hasn’t happened. And in the case of an emergency, Midorima would still think to call, and he certainly wouldn’t tell the secretary that he’d be taking the weekend off in generic terms.

So he calls Midorima’s sister. She hasn’t talked to him at all since the previous weekend, but promises to let Takao know if she hears anything. Kise’s out of the country, although he answers Takao’s e-mail promptly as usual and tells him that Midorima never responds to his mass e-mails of tourist pictures anyway and his phone is locked, so they haven’t talked since Kise was in Japan a month ago. As a last-ditch effort, he calls Aomine—he’s not really sure if Aomine and Midorima are actually a thing or not or if they just went on a couple of dates (and Midorima almost entirely refuses to talk about his love life, although from what Takao has pried from him and especially those pleased little blushes Midorima doesn’t think he gets it seems to have been going well, whatever it is between those two) but Aomine doesn’t pick up.

All things considered, that’s due diligence, and if anything’s actually happened to Midorima, it should be better to get to his apartment sooner than later. So Takao double-checks that he’s got Midorima’s spare key and heads for the subway.

He knocks on Midorima’s door twice; his knuckles are sharp on the wood and they echo in the hallway like boulders tumbling down the edge of a ravine. Takao sucks in his breath; he’s being silly. Midorima’s fine. He knocks on the door again; there’s no answer, no irritated shout or sound of stomping footsteps on the wood floor. So Takao takes out his key and puts it in the lock and turns. He pushes the door open cautiously; it doesn’t squeak (because of course Midorima keeps his hinges well-oiled).

“Easy, easy.”

The voice is low, rough, familiar—but definitely not Midorima’s.

“There’s someone at the door; I definitely heard the lock.”

And that is Midorima. Whatever the hell is going on, Takao’s found him and he’s alive. He can’t see what’s going on; it’s too far beyond the corner of the vestibule even for him, so he steps out—and immediately wishes he hadn’t.

Midorima and Aomine are naked on the couch engaged in some sort of sexual position that Takao is almost shocked that they can pull off, given their sizes and especially the relative size of the couch. Both of their heads turn toward him as they hear his footsteps; Takao tries very hard not to cringe.

“What,” says Aomine.

“Takao?” says Midorima.

“Uh,” says Takao. “Hi, Shin-chan. Uh..”

“What are you doing here? Why are you in my apartment?” His voice is rising, almost hysterically and exponentially.

“Uh,” says Takao again, edging back down the hall.

Takao tries very hard to keep his eyes on Midorima’s face and not look anywhere else—it’s not like he’s never seen both Midorima and Aomine naked before, in various locker rooms—but never like this, and never in a space that was explicitly Midorima’s. Midorima opens his mouth and closes it several times before finally thinking of a retort.

“Get out.”

Takao doesn’t need to be told twice. He turns around and leaves exactly the way he’d come, and locks the door behind him.

His phone buzzes as he’s walking down the stairs; it’s a text from Aomine asking him to wait outside. And as much as Takao really didn’t need to know a lot of this and doesn’t want much in terms of the explicit details of Aomine and Midorima’s sex life, there’s definitely a story here and he definitely needs to know why Midorima has been avoiding him. Even a weekend spent mostly in the throes of passion (or whatever that was) has its moments of rest, and checking that the missed phone calls are piling up and maybe sending an e-mail back or something in one of those breaks should be expected. If there’s an explanation for this, well—Takao will hold off judgment on that. At least Midorima’s okay.

It’s Aomine who opens the door; he’s more than a little embarrassed if the way he’s rubbing the back of his neck is any indication, but he’s wearing clothes (he still smells a little like sex, but Takao supposes that in a short amount of time he can’t expect too much). He doesn’t say anything, just leads Takao to the kitchen, where Midorima (who is also wearing clothes but has done nothing to hide the giant hickey on his neck) waits.

“So,” says Midorima.

“You didn’t answer my texts or my calls; the secretary said you were away for the weekend; your sister and Kise said they hadn’t heard from you—I knocked twice! I just wanted to make sure you were still alive,” says Takao. “And you are.”

Midorima flushes and then glares at Aomine. “This is all your fault.”

“My fault? The only reason I took the damn phone was because you were always checking it, and calling work back for whatever little thing because they have you chained to them and you know it.”

“Wait, you took his phone?” says Takao.

Midorima nods.

“And you haven’t looked at it once? Just to make sure there were no emergencies?”

Midorima shakes his head. “I…we’ve had a lot of…interruptions because of calls for work.”

“And you skipped out on me that one night you didn’t take the call because you answered the voice mail and were up all night on the phone and I woke up to you leaving early for the hospital,” says Aomine.

“So…I figured…” Midorima trails off. “I’m trying to cut back, but I wanted something…now…”

“I know you’re trying,” Aomine says, and he wraps his arm around Midorima’s waist and suddenly Takao feels as if he’s intruding on their private conversation.

So he coughs. Both of their faces snap toward his.

“I’m sorry for interrupting your romantic weekend,” Takao says. “But next time, tell me you’ll be out of touch and not to worry about you or anything.”

Midorima flushes. “I’m sorry.”

Takao waves his hand. “Nah, you’re good. Just let me know when you’re free for drinks or whatever. Go back to what you were doing.”

They seem to be doing that already; Aomine’s leaning in closer to Midorima and Midorima’s almost smiling and they’re actually pretty cute together. And anyone who forces Midorima away from work when he needs it can’t be all that bad for him. Still, this is a lot more serious than Takao had thought it was—which just means they have a lot to talk about the next time drinks or dinner or Takao barging into Midorima’s office and dragging him away from stacks of medical paperwork happens.


End file.
